17 years Holland Tunnel Gallery: a celebration, a book launch and new exhibitions

Fri, Nov 7 - Sun, Nov 9  2014

Holland Tunnel Gallery - New York Consulate Region

On November 7, 8 and 9, the celebration of 17 years Holland Tunnel Gallery will take place in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. During the weekend there will be several events to celebrate the Holland Tunnel Gallery’s existence since 1997.

About Holland Tunnel Gallery

Holland Tunnel Gallery est. 1997: A unique art space in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York. Dutch artist and Williamsburg pioneer Paulien Lethen opened Holland Tunnel Gallery in her newly installed Home Depot garden shed. The mini art space rapidly gained recognition in the art world and became a neighborhood icon. From 1997-2007 the gallery presented a monthly show schedule and is now open for special exhibitions and events.

For its celebration on November 7,8 and 9 Holland Tunnel Gallery has programmed:

– The OPENING OF FRAMED mega group show in Stairmasters with more than 100 of the 700 Holland Tunnel Gallery Artists
– The book launch of Holland Tunnel Gallery
– The OPENING OF THREE IN ONE One-weekend installation in Holland Tunnel Gallery by Paulien Lethen, Bix Lye, Jan Mulder
– CONCERTS & PERFORMANCES Performances by Syberen van Munster Quintet, Lex Grey and the Urban Pioneers, and the Heleen Schuttevaêr / Ron Jackson Quartet

The event is part of 5 Dutch Days, the Netherland-America Foundation’s annual cultural program celebrating the continuous influence of Dutch arts and culture in NYC.

About the book Holland Tunnel Gallery 

This book, (available from November 5) by Paulien Lethen and Heleen Schuttevaêr tells the story of the Holland Tunnel Gallery. In November 1997, Dutch artist Paulien Lethen organized an exhibition in her Home Depot garden shed in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, then known as the New Bohemia. It was a totally different way to experience art! The story spans a period of almost two decades and depicts a unique microcosm in a changing neighborhood. The book gives a complete survey of the exhibitions and events that took place in the Williamsburg gallery but also in the summer extension on the Greek island of Paros, and in Stairmasters, the long-term exhibition space in the brownstone next to the gallery. More than 550 photos, group photos and snapshots, the story of the gallery that became an icon in Williamsburg; introductions; Index with 800 artists, musicians and performers; press reviews, and more.
The book has received funding through a grant from the Netherland-America Foundation

About 3inOne

3inOne is an exhibtion of works by Bix Lye, Paulien Lethen and Jan Mulder. They are three of the earliest artists of the stable of Holland Tunnel Gallery. They have often shown work in the gallery in Williamsburg as well as in the summer extension on the Greek island of Paros, and also exhibited regularly together in The Netherlands. The special event is the celebration of 17 years Holland Tunnel Gallery. During a weekend of concerts and performances on Nov 7‐8‐9, a book about the gallery from 1997‐2014 will be launched, and there will be the kick off of Framed, a mega group with works of 100 – and most likely more ‐ artists, in the monumental staircase of the brownstone next to the gallery.

Paulien Lethen

Williamsburg/Brooklyn‐based Dutch painter Paulien Lethen lived on the Greek island of Paros from the late ‘60’s till 1982. In that year she moved to NY but spends several months each year on Paros. She also has been living in Kyoto. Her paintings on paper, wood andetal are inspired by the different worlds of New York, Paros and Japan. Light, shadow and movement are returning elements in Lethen’s bold, strong and colorful compositions. In 1997 she founded the Holland Tunnel Gallery in Brooklyn NY that has gained worldwide recognition as a microcosm of local and international talent. In 2000, Lethen opened a summer extension on Paros with her sister Heleen. A long term art space in the staircase of the brownstone next to the NY gallery, called Stairmasters, was opened in 2003.

Jan Mulder

Painter Jan Mulder lives and works in Utrecht, The Netherlands. He is a regular visitor of New York and spends several months of each year on the Greek island of Paros, where he also has a studio. In his paintings, space plays a role of central importance. The passage of time is a recurring motif. H.J.A. Hofland, writer/ journalist: ‘Mulder’s paintings (…) produce the sensation that comes with the discovery of things which were thought to be lost.” Jan Mulder’s commitment to convey emotional and existential experiences through memorized or invented landscapes, results in vivid abstract oil paintings; balanced compositions with broad brush strokes and abstract marks of paint that has been poured and splashed over the canvas.

Bix Lye 

Bix Lye was born in London, emigrated to the U.S.A. He lives and works in Williamsburg, Brooklyn/NY and spends the summer on the Greek island of Paros, where he also has a workshop. The sculptures of Bix Lye, compositions of colored blocks, look simple but on closer inspection turn out to be complicated structures. “I like playing with colors, shapes, and their relationships. What fascinates me about color is that almost any object, when completely covered in paint, tricks one into believing the color could go thru and thru. I think that high finishes without brush marks enhance this effect.” 

Concerts and performances on November 7, 8 and 9.

Holland Tunnel Gallery has invited young Dutch jazz guitarist Syberen van Munster and his New York Quintet for a concert during the weekend (Sat Nov 8  3:00 PM and 4:30 PM) of events celebrating 17 years HTGallery. Between the two sets of the band, the Holland Tunnel Gallery book will be presented, and visitors can also enjoy two new exhibitions, Framed with more than 100 artists in Stairmasters and the one-weekend installaion 3 In One in the gallery.
With Plunge For Distance, Syberen van Munster has brought together an unusual formation of talented peers: saxophonist Jay Rattman, Brazilian accordionist Vitor Gonçalves, bassist Rick Rosato, and drummer Peter Kronreif. From a wide array of influences that include Elis Regina, Samuel Barber, Boards of Canada, and Gil Evans, they craft a sound that is lush, pulsating and subtly melancholic. Due to the atypical instrumentation, the music can be at times orchestral, fully utilizing the harmonic spectrum.

A native of Amsterdam, Syberen van Munster has lived in New York City since 2009, where he has performed at venues such as Smoke Jazz Club, The Blue Note, Rockwood Music Hall, and the city’s go-to jazz guitar club, the Bar Next Door. He regularly jumps out of the fish tank however, to perform at such places as the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., The North Sea Jazz Festival in The Netherlands or The Boozy Muse in Tokyo. The band’s debut album Plunge for Distance will be out early 2015.

Dutch jazz pianist and vocalist Heleen Schuttevaêr gives the drive of Monty Alexander, the swing of Peggy Lee, the bossa nova feel of Jobim and the groove of Les McCann a new and sophisticad flair. On Sunday November 9  (3:00 PM and 4:30 PM) she will perform together with the Ron Jackson Quartet. Heleen was already a full-time band leader, when she started a serious piano study with renowned jazz pianists from her home country, like Michiel Borstlap, Bert van den Brink and Peter Beets, and in New York Barry Harris and Don Friedman. She learned to understand what she had always been playing by ear and singing by nature. Heleen initiated monthly Club Jazz concerts in The Netherlands, inviting leading musicians as well as young talents from the Dutch and international jazz scene to play with her. In Club Jazz she had her first concerts with Ron Jackson. In Holland Tunnel Gallery they will play with Adam Kabak on bass and Art Lillard on drums.